Farrow: New Kavanaugh accuser came forward because “Senate Democrats came looking”

This is a quickly developing (or perhaps we should say “devolving”) story to be sure. When I looked at Ronan Farrow’s dumpster fire of a report on the new Kavanaugh accuser this morning, one seemingly important detail was left out. We only learned it when Farrow was doing his umpteenth interview of the day on Good Morning America.

When asked about the genesis of the story and how this new accuser came into the public eye, Farrow dropped a bit of a bombshell. Deborah Ramirez apparently wasn’t looking to save the world from Brett Kavanaugh reaching the Supreme Court bench. The story was out there circulating among reporters (somehow) but Ramirez only decided to speak up after “Senate Democrats” came looking for her. (The Wrap)

Ronan Farrow says Deborah Ramirez, a second woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, came out publicly with her claims after being contacted by “Senate Democrats.”

“She came forward because Senate Democrats began looking at this claim. She did not flag this for those Democrats. This came to the attention of people on the hill independently and it’s really cornered her into an awkward position,” Farrow told “Good Morning America” on Monday.

“She said point blank I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life, but she feels this is a serious claim,” he added. “She considers her own memories credible and she felt it was important that she tell her story before others did without her consent because so many people on the hill were looking at this story.”

You can catch this portion of the interview in a GMA tweet posted earlier.

What’s really fascinating is the way Farrow is sticking to his claim that this story somehow meets normal journalistic standards for publication. Even George Stephanopoulos was pushing back on him, asking about the six days Ramirez spent being coached by her lawyer prior to making a statement and the lack of anyone listed as a witness backing up her claims. (To say nothing of her admittedly drunken state when the incident allegedly took place and the fact that she couldn’t even be sure Kavanaugh was there until her six-day legal conference.)

When asked about that issue, Farrow told Stephanopoulos, “I would say that that is extremely typical of these stories.” But he was referring to the amount of time it took Ramirez to “decide” to speak up. That’s not even what he put in his own article. That six days was, at least according to Ramirez, the amount of time it took before she was confident enough in her own “assessing of her memories” to be confident that she was relaying accurate facts.

Combine all of this with the fact that Farrow’s co-author, Jane Mayer, also came out this morning and said that Ramirez had told Ronan directly that “she couldn’t be sure” and “wasn’t absolutely sure” it was Brett Kavanaugh. That didn’t really come through in the reporting, however.

So who were these Senate Democrats who came calling, trying to drag Ramirez out into the open? If this wasn’t her idea, aren’t they just abusing an alleged victim? Ramirez has just been thrust into a three-ring circus which isn’t going to be much fun for her and likely not offer any potential for profit unless she gets a book deal out of it. And her story is, if anything, even more vacuous and thin than Ford’s. It’s quickly becoming obvious that this is yet another part of a carefully coordinated attack on Brett Kavanaugh by Democrats in an attempt to thwart his confirmation to the Supreme Court. And if Ramirez isn’t a willing participant in the plot she’s one of its victims. She can blame these “Senate Democrats” who came around fishing for her if it blows up in her face.

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